Florence Glenda Ballard was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 30, 1943 to Lurlee (née Wilson) and Jesse Ballard, as the ninth of fifteen children. Her siblings were Bertie, Cornell, Jesse, Jr., Gilbert, Geraldine, Barbara, Maxine, Billy, Calvin, Pat, Linda and Roy. Her mother was a resident of Rosetta, Mississippi. Her father was born Jesse Lambert in Bessemer, Alabama; after his grandmother was shot and killed, he was adopted by the Ballard family. Jesse Ballard left his adoptive parents at 13, and soon engaged in an affair with Ballard\'s mother, who was only 14, in Rosetta. The Ballards moved to Detroit in 1929. Jesse soon worked at General Motors. Jesse, an amateur musician, helped instigate Florence\'s interest in singing; he taught her various songs and accompanied her on guitar. Financial difficulties forced the Ballard family to move to different Detroit neighborhoods; by the time Florence turned 15 they had settled at Detroit\'s Brewster-Douglass housing projects, and the next year Jesse Lambert Ballard died of cancer.\n', '

Named "Blondie" and "Flo" by family and friends, Ballard attended Northeastern High School and was coached vocally by Abraham Silver. Ballard met future singing partner Mary Wilson during a middle-school talent show and they became friends while attending Northeastern High. From an early age, Ballard aspired to be a singer and agreed to audition for a spot on a sister group of the local Detroit attraction, the Primes, who were managed by Milton Jenkins. After she was accepted, Ballard recruited Mary Wilson to join Jenkins\' group. Wilson, in turn, enlisted another neighbor, Diana Ross, then going by "Diane". Betty McGlown completed the original lineup and Jenkins named them as "The Primettes". The group performed at talent showcases and at school parties before auditioning for Motown Records in 1960. Berry Gordy, head of Motown, advised the group to graduate from high school before auditioning again. Ballard eventually dropped out of high school though her groupmates graduated.\n', '

In 1960, Ballard was raped at knifepoint by local high-school basketball player Reggie Harding after leaving a sock hop at Detroit\'s Graystone Ballroom (she had attended with her brother, but they accidentally lost track of each other). The rape occurred in an empty parking lot off Woodward Avenue. Ballard responded by secluding herself in her house refusing to come outside, which worried her groupmates. Weeks later, Ballard told Wilson and Ross what had happened. Though Ross and Wilson were sympathetic, they were also confused because Ballard was considered to be strong-willed and unflappable. Both Wilson and Jesse Green, an early boyfriend of Florence\'s, had described her as a "generally happy if somewhat mischievous and sassy teenager." Wilson believes that the incident heavily contributed to the more self-destructive aspects of Ballard\'s adult personality, like cynicism, pessimism, and fear or distrust of others, but the rape was never mentioned again.\n', '

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